We received a question along those lines from a Widen DAM customer the other day and for her, as it is for many of our customers new or old, it’s quite eye-opening when you go a few layers in to find there’s a lot more to Widen than meets the eye.

The truth is, we’ve always been focused on the customer experience. The excitement and attraction has changed a bit as the industry has evolved, but we’ve always been about the customer relationship. Not only optimizing your experience as a Widen customer, but moreover about optimizing your customers’ experiences with your brand.

The analysts from Forrester and other thought-leaders in the industry talk about how Digital Asset Management has emerged as a necessary technology rounding out the customer experience management (CXM) suite of solutions along with WCM, e-Commerce and MRM. We get it too. However, our flavor of CXM carries a lot more service-appeal. To you and your boss, we’re excited to see that DAM is now viewed as a must-have technology that ties to strategic advantage and not just a utility to help with tactical execution.

At Widen, we’ve always been delivering digital media solutions and technologies as a service provider -- even before SaaS and cloud became the norm. With that, guided implementations and project management, help desk / tech support, and ongoing client development services have all been part of the package. And we mean it... it’s part of the package.

Now, although we’ve been “doing it” for some clients for awhile, we’re extending the SaaS model to be your complete Digital Asset Management service provider (or DaaS - DAM as a Service - if you really want another acronym) with up-front strategy development and on-going administrative services. Both of these professional services embrace consulting services and more labor-intensive assistance, however it’s an expertise we’ve ramped up over the years. Your organization probably should have ramped up in these areas too, but we know time and resources are always short while the demands continue to rise. That’s where we can help.

Continue to follow along for updates to come, but don’t be surprised when you see announcements of new technologies, new services and new partners as we move toward optimizing the complete digital customer experience together.

Check out this infographic to learn a bit more about the Widen Customer Experience.

Request a consultation if you’re lost and need help finding a starting point.

This past weekend, a group of Widen employees (including me) got downright dirty at Madison Mud Run 2012. Luckily, we have some great photographers around here who were able to capture the muddiest moments.

Check out the rest of the photos in our Facebook album!

Josey and I hosted a webinar yesterday covering the new features in version 6.2 of the Widen Media Collective Digital Asset Management solution. Among the new features covered were the basics of Analytics, PDF Exports, the new Widen partnership with ConceptShare, and a look ahead at what to expect with version 6.3 in early 2013. You can view the webinar recording here.

One of the most notable new things in 6.2 is the release of Widen Analytics, which provides digital asset management administrators a more efficient way for measuring activity to gain valuable market insights and determine future budget and resource allocation.

The new Widen Analytics app provides dashboards for storage, users, asset counts and orders. Widen Analytics helps marketing and creative decision-makers better understand popular asset types and key user groups to concentrate on.

Three specific dashboards worth pointing out for site managers include:

1. Storage by File Type – This is useful for site storage maintenance to understand what file type or what specific files within that file type are comprising the most storage.

2. Asset Status – This allows you to watch your Pending Delete and Unreleased queues. Having too many unreleased assets likely means a large portion of your users aren't finding valuable assets (or you’re really good at planning ahead). Your assets in the Pending Delete bucket can affect your storage costs. For some, it’s worth the peace of mind knowing that data is recoverable, but it’s worth knowing what’s there and if any clean-up is needed.

3. Asset Orders by Users and Filenames – Monitoring site usage via asset orders can be very useful. Are the power users placing the most orders who you expect them to be? What assets are most popular and, within that, what conversion formats are most popular. Come back here often as you try to promote specific assets and collections.

Bonus Tips!

Get to know your top users by name if you don’t already as they’re a great source for more qualitative intel. Need to quantify your DAM ROI to your top management? The Asset Counts and Asset Orders by date charts make for some impressive visuals.

During the webinar, we also provided a brief look at the kinds of complementary insights the Google Analytics profiles within Collective DAM software sites can bring to your organization. 

You can get a better understanding for how users are searching your digital asset library and what they’re searching for by comparing top quick searches and top category searches. 

The user insights complement the user login dashboards from Widen Analytics by telling you absolute unique visitors, pageviews, time on site and new visits. The map overlay can provide some fascinating displays of where your users are coming from.

We’re also tracking analytics on popular browsers & operating systems, screen resolutions and mobile devices to help us guide product roadmap decisions. You can use this data to better understand your userbase and what to develop as well. 

We’d love to compare notes with any other analytics junkies out there so feel free to contact us!

Request a demo to learn more about Widen Analytics and the other new features in 6.2 of the Widen DAM.

We hear all about “what the pros wear” when it comes to our championship-caliber athletes. What you often don’t hear about is what the pros use to manage and distribute the images you see when you want to buy what what the pros wear. Marketing and creative pros that is.

You are right! That would be Widen.

More specifically, Widen Digital Sampling and Digital Asset Management make it happen.

We’ve written before about how Widen has supported the hot market demands of the official apparel suppliers to the NFL, NBA, NHL, and now Major League Baseball — along with many other licensed sports apparel marketers for colleges and universities across the country.

Widen has all but set the standard in how sports licensed apparel is managed, distributed and presented in the digital channels where you see it first.

The most recent example of this on display come with the victors of the 2012 World Series, the San Francisco Giants.

While Widen did not create the digital samples shown here with graphics applied this time around, the garment blanks were shot in our photo studio and the master assets are housed and delivered with Widen DAM software. Both of the vendors shown here are Widen DAM customers. Watch this video to learn more about Widen Digital Sampling services.

The Widen digital production process and apparel marketing technology helps marketers cut costs, improve efficiency and shorten time to market.

More specific benefits of using Widen cloud-based Digital Asset Management include:

• Accelerated search and retrieval time in accessing official imagery
• Increased real-time collaboration of assets and approvals
• Cost savings through the elimination of physical delivery of samples
• Elimination of the cost of lost or misplaced work
• Reduction in time-to-market through digital delivery

Check out more related posts about Widen Digital Sampling services.

Here at Widen, our company culture stresses the importance of "work-life balance." That's why for every great new software release we put out, we've got a mud run or charity mustache competition to tell you about.

InBusiness Madison recently recognized what a great place to work this is by including Widen in its list of "Great Madison's Best Companies to Work For." We picked up one of just 14 spots in the "Silver" tier. Here's some of InBusiness' explanation of how they put the list together:

When evaluating employee recruitment and retention, there is no greater reflection of a company’s values than its employee benefits. So, for our inaugural  list, we placed all of the emphasis on employee benefits. In other words, this recognition is not about fancy facilities or buddy-buddy management.

All of the organizations certified by IB as a “Best Company” scored very highly in the health care section of the survey, where we measured commitment to individual and family coverage and spouse and domestic partner benefits, plus dental and vision insurance and the depth of wellness programs.

We also asked employers to provide information on their 401(k) plans and any profit sharing, child care (flex time), paid time off provisions, and benefits such as life and disability insurance, transportation reimbursement, and employee training and education.

Digital asset management software might seem like it begins and ends in the cloud. The turth, though, is that it starts right here, with people who are dedicated to excellence and know that the organization is as much behind them as they are behind the solutions that support your workflows.

Our friends at ConceptShare recently posted a blog about the value and implications of having more marketing data to inform your segmentation efforts. The reasoning is pretty simple. In ConceptShare's words:

Data has created more opportunities for marketers to reach customers with timely and relevant messages, offers and calls to action.

Marketing teams now have the opportunity to better segment and target customers. That means generating more assets (with targeted copy, offers and images) and reaching out through a growing number of devices and channels in order to create a personalized consumer experience for your target audience.

So what does this mean in DAM? Well, if you're breaking your audiences up into segments that require different messaging, it stands to reason that you would reach out to them using different digital assets. After all, if you know half your audience is in Miami and the other half is in New York, you wouldn't try selling sports apparel to all of them with images of Jets gear.

Having that data and acting on it effectively means being able to find the tools you need quickly. The more your create assets to meet these segmentation needs, the more cumbersome your media library becomes without digital asset management software on your side. Your marketing data — if you plan to act on it — should probably inform the way you apply metadata to your assets, making them searchable in terms that are relevant to those who'll actually need to find them.

Take a look at our demo options to get a better sense for how metadata tools in Media Collective could help you take swifter action on all the data you're collecting.

Speaking of ConceptShare, our two organizations are in a bit of a competition ... and things are getting hairy.

Team Widen is in a race to mustache glory against Conselleckshare. Donate to our Movember team to benefit men's health today.

At Widen, our marketing plan embraces one of "mastering the basics" and depends heavily on the strength of the content we offer our audiences. Whether it’s our white papers, testimonial videos, or analytical blog posts, we always strive to produce content that’s genuinely useful.

None of that means very much, though, if we’re not getting a return on the time we invest in creating that content. We are, after all, in the business of serving people’s digital media needs — not education. Our sites get traffic from a healthy balance of web sources including search, referral, and direct visits driven by SEO, PPC, PR, social media and some other paid advertising, earned content placements and events.

The metrics our marketing team watches span from top-of-funnel brand awareness benchmarks to customer acquisition goals.

For example, as of October, we were observing the following:

• Over 12,000 monthly searches for "Digital Asset Management" (not including related terms)
• 4,200 average unique visitors per month make it to Widen.com in a buy and/or research phase of their DAM projects
• About 330 Web visitors per month identify themselves as what we would consider “leads.” That is, they’re seeking our resources or wanting to talk about our services.
• 35-45 people per month are champions leading projects and are ready to talk with us while in a “buying mode.”
• 12-15 organizations per month are able to establish budget, authority, strategy and timeline for their DAM projects.
• 4-5 of these actually become customers each month (not including those who come to Widen by some other means, like personal referral).

These statistics are growing and accelerating on a monthly basis and a big reason for that, of course, is "content".

All of this reflects a rapid growth in marketers’ interest in DAM software to harness the value of their growing content libraries. So... what do we do with all this data?

It’s a funny mix of art, science and guessing, but we take all these figures and do our best to establish a set of objectives that we’ll shoot for each year and beyond. For instance, we estimate that, of a certain kind of DAM researcher, about a third will go on to be classified as "one that will lead the purchase of a DAM.” These kinds of ratios help us set our annual baseline marketing objectives and ensure that we’re not just keeping pace, but growing year over year.

Where does our content fit in?

Marketing content, which sometimes sits behind forms that ask consumers of that information to identify themselves, is critical to our success in reaching these goals. Here are two ways it helps us in that regard:

• Quality content helps us rank higher in Google and other search engines. Not only do we optimize the copy for search engines, but we also produce helpful stuff, which means people share it and refer to it on their networks, further amplifying its contribution to our findability.
• Quality content is also useful to our advisor and customer development teams. Even after someone’s found us in organic search or through paid advertisements, our content is of a high enough quality that it becomes a useful part of the process of educating people on our software, service and company culture even after they become customers.

It’s important to understand all those ratios for your own marketing efforts. Even if you’re doing all the right things, having that knowledge will help inform how much time and effort you put into doing even more of it.

Believe it or not, some web-based DAM providers actually differentiate between the types of users and will charge you more for people who are able to make certain decisions or contribute content to your media library. Can you believe that some even limit the number of concurrent users? At Widen, we don’t want to limit your usage in any way.

We include a bunch of users (and they can all be online at the same time), storage is cheap, bandwidth is free and every customer has a 30-day out. That’s right! You get a lot and your commitment is very low. What’s more, the monthly subscription is easy to budget for, updates are free and support is included.

I know what you’re thinking: “WOW, that’s a great deal! How do they do that?”

The answer is simple. It’s a great product and we provide really awesome service. With that, customer loyalty and retention are high. We’ve been around for 65 years, so we know what we’re doing and where we’re going.

You need to know that not all web-based DAM solutions are created equal.

Back to our digital asset management user model where “a user is a user is user”.

Typical installations have user roles to include a few global administrators, some mid-level admin roles, and end-user roles representing the widest user base.

Here’s a breakdown of the types of users you might have. Again, they all cost the same:

Global Admins - You should only have a few of these. These are the key knowledge managers that have the ultimate rights to see and do everything with your content, your users and all the available features of the system. They administrate all of the user roles and asset groups, set up the metadata schema and taxonomies, and are in the know about all activity.

Mid-Level Admins - You can have as many of these types of users as you need. These are managers of specific roles and asset groups where they would have authority and hold the knowledge about the users and assets within specific groups under them.

Contributors - We don’t necessarily call these out specifically, but this group includes anyone with permission to upload content to your digital library. That means photographers, videographers, designers, agencies and other content creators along with marketing coordinators and assistants who help keep the workflow running smoothly and the asset lifecycle in check.

Editors - These would be anyone with permissions to add and edit metadata on your digital assets. These knowledge workers possess the details needed to keep your content organized, searchable and repurpose-able as they work with other systems and products that influence what they know and how they interact with DAM.

Publishers - You got it, we don’t differentiate for these types of users either, but these are the folks that embrace some of the publishing features of DAM to connect your content direct with the intended audiences. Features available include on-the-fly conversions for print and web channels, embed codes, social publishing, collections & galleries, and ad & brochure creation.

Auditors - We don’t break these out either, but these are the managers, validators and decision-makers that want access to the wealth of usage data that can be gleaned from your Widen cloud-based DAM system. These are the people that take advantage of the data exports and analytics tools to measure and assess user activity and asset consumption for future budgeting and resource planning.

End Users and Subscribers - These are the people who represent the largest groups of users. Often, these users are broken out across various roles such as field sales, distributors and dealers, media & press, etc. These users just want to get in, find the assets they need and download them in the appropriate formats for the task at hand, then get out to move on to the next thing.

With Widen, your digital asset management implementation can contain any combination of users and it’s typical for many of those mid-level users to have many overlapping roles and permissions. Users change over time and your user base will increase as new departments and constituents see the value of the system. Fortunately, Widen’s flexible governance model and pricing accommodations make growth very easy.

Request a DAM consultation to talk more about how you would structure your digital asset management user base.

For more reactions from Widen digital asset management users, check out some of the Widen reviews on Capterra or recommendations on LinkedIn.

We're entering a new generation in digital media. According to our CEO Matthew Gonnering. the coming changes are being driven by three major factors:

• Moves to the cloud
• The rise of a generation of people who grew up with powerful consumer computing
• An explosion of digital content

This all has implications for the digital asset management industry. Whether it's archiving photos for print campaigns or online video publishing, we're all generating media constantly. Without DAM software, it's much harder to repupose that and capitalize on its value.

In Matthew's own words:

According to business research firm Frost & Sullivan, the DAM industry is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of more than 30% and exceed $1 billion in revenues by 2013. Those statistics suggest the number of DAM providers, 170 by software information service Capterra’s count, may grow.

Read the full piece at VentureBeat.

As we recently announced, Widen has brought an integration with ConceptShare into Widen Media Collective, offering users of our digital asset management software a powerful new option for annotation, markup and collaboration in their creative workflows.

Want to take a deeper dive into how this works and figure out whether Widen and ConceptShare are right for you? There will be a webinar covering just that on January 10, 2013 at 12:00 p.m. CST.

Register for our webinar. If you have particular questions you'd like us to address during that webinar, feel free to get in touch with us and let us know.

Not sure what this is all about? Here's an excerpt from our recent announcement to clear things up:

"We know people are excited about having access to these new tools. Our customers have come to put a lot of trust in us, so we're glad to now be bringing these review capabilities to the table, as they'll enable users to make Widen solutions a part of even more of their creative processes," said Lanita Haag, Widen's director of project services.

How does it work? Users of the integration can send any asset to ConceptShare from Widen Media Collective's asset details page. Once the asset is placed in a ConceptShare workspace, reviewers can use any number of annotation tools to mark up and make suggested edits to the asset. They can also initiate a review of the asset with a group of people. Once the review process is complete the asset's status is updated to reflect that, Widen pulls it right back to Media Collective.

Finally, take a look at this video to see the integration in action:

2012 was a big year for content marketing, and there's going to be an even greater need for digital asset management solutions at organizations of all shapes and sizes in 2013. In this post to kick off the lucky year ‘13, we bring you our top DAM blog posts from 2012. 

1. Choosing a digital asset management system: The four phases of the DAM decision journey– This handy guide was created to help those embarking on the DAM journey for the first time to navigate the milestones necessary to strategize, research, justify and evaluate potential solutions and come out with the best fit partner.

 

2. Digital assets are "repurposaceous" and other key takeaways for the uninitiated– This post gets into five key takeaways for digital asset management newbies and why repurposing content is so important to efficient marketing operations.

 

3. How do you choose the best Digital Asset Management solution?– This post introduces the intangible factors to consider in identifying the right DAM partner to help you maximize the value of your brand assets.

 

4. The value of embed code generation in DAM software– One of the more popular DAM subjects of the year, this post introduces you to one of the most handy features for repurposing your digital media across the online customer experience.

 

5. Ad agencies and digital asset management - the end benefit– Advertising agencies are among the verticals where the need for effective DAM tools are most critical for improving resource allocation and creative collaboration through the digital supply chain.

 

6. Creative agencies that use digital asset management experience big benefits– This post introduces three must-haves for successful adoption of digital asset management at a creative agency according to a renowned Chicago-based ad agency.

 

7. On-premises digital asset management software - How other systems add hidden costs – This isn't one of those diatribes on hosted vs. installed software; this post offers an insider’s view of the costs that typically go unaccounted for during evaluations.

 

8. A user is a user is a user and more about the Widen digital asset management user model– This post uncovers the differences of user license models among web-based DAM vendors and provides a breakdown of the types of users you employ across all facets of the digital asset lifecycle – from content contributors to editors, publishers, auditors, and more.

 

9. How to audit your digital asset management system in 10 easy steps– This site audit outline was developed for Widen Media Collective customers, but the format can be adopted for just about any solution as a way to evaluate, improve and optimize the structure of your DAM system and, in turn, the use of your brand assets.

 

10. Making your DAM usage better with a Widen end user survey– This resource offers a guide to the continuous improvement process by tapping the feedback from end users of your brand asset library.

 

11. It's about “protection of investments” with destination marketing organizations (DMOs)– Beyond the benefits of repurposing content, this post gets into the most valuable justifications for DAM tools — security and protection of your assets and your brand.

 

12. You don't need to break the bank to meet your business' DAM software needs– This post reminds us that sophisticated DAM tools don’t need to cost a fortune, although they can be worth a fortune to your marketing operation and brand equity.

 

13. Drive Then Sign - Experience what it’s like to use Digital Asset Management Software Before You Buy– We know you sometimes just feel like getting in and taking a test drive! This post provides a number of different options for "getting a feel" for potential solutions.

 

We hope you’ve enjoyed our content! What did we miss? What would you like to see more of? 

 

Leave a comment or ask an expert to get in touch.

 

BONUS: This post from 2011 introduces what continues to be our most popular white paper – What to know before you go!

As a provider of a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) digital asset management solution, we get plenty of security-related questions from people who are a bit apprehensive about trusting their DAM software needs to the cloud.

That was the topic of a recent Google Hangout between Widen leaders and RCR Wireless. As CEO Matthew Gonnering and CTO Gary Norris point out, the Amazon Web Service cloud is not only secure, but also enables Widen to offer its DAM customer more innovation at a lower cost. A true win-win.

Here's a video of Matthew and Gary recapping the interview and offering a few extra thoughts. The full interview is below. If you want to chat with us in more detail about the security of cloud-based DAM, just get in touch!
 

Matthew Gonnering and Gary Norris after their RCR Wireless News interview

RCR Wireless News interview

No matter how good your admins are with learning new technologies, you should always make sure that the tools you're making available to your broader user base (sales, affiliates, marketing and others) are intuitive enough that learning the system doesn't get in the way of doing their jobs.

In this new installment in our "Why Widen?" video series, DAM software advisor Brenna Hale exlains why Widen Media Collective is so easy to use, and why that matters to people who are looking for a best-fit solution.

Want to learn more about Widen Media Collective and DAM software in general? Check out our resources page for access to white papers, customer interviews and lots of other handy stuff.

Don't be afraid of the cloud. Here's the third installment in our ongoing "Why Widen?" series. As Brenna Hale, one of our DAM advisors, explains, hosted solutions are a safe, reliable way to ensure you and your users can find and retrieve your valuable digital assets just about any time you need them.

Check out our demo options to see what Media Collective, our Web-based digital asset management software, can do for you.

We recently received a healthy dose of digital asset management reviews for the Widen Media Collective on Capterra. These customer reviews come from those responsible for implementing and administering Widen DAM across a variety of different organizations - from higher ed to healthcare and everything in between.

• Ease of Use
• Ease of Implementation
• Meets Your Needs
• Feature Richness
• Customer Support

• Read the Widen review on DreamSimplicity
• Read more Widen customer testimonials
• Watch Widen customer interview videos

The New Additions to the Widen Digital Asset Management Software Community Include Organizations in Marketing, Software, Government, Energy, and the Food Industry

MADISON, WI--(Marketwire - Jan 31, 2013) - Widen Enterprises, a Wisconsin-based provider of digital asset management (DAM) software and other digital media solutions, became the DAM system provider of choice for 47 new customers adopting the Widen Media Collective cloud-based DAM solution.

"2012 was incredible for Widen! It was a privilege to gain the trust of such a diverse group of organizations in the last few months of the year," said Widen CEO Matthew Gonnering.

Of those 47 customers, 16 made Widen their final choice in the year's last quarter. Like other Widen DAM users, they'll be benefitting from a combination of service and expertise only Widen can provide, empowering them to represent their brands better and more confidently.

"We are excited to begin our partnership with Widen. Their DAM and Dynamic Media Building solutions will allow our team to more effectively manage and distribute our assets, and promote our brands in a more consistent manner," said Patrick Morrison, Senior Manager of In-House Creative Solutions for Black Hills Corp.

New Widen digital asset management customers include:

WAGO Corporation - WAGO Corporation provides North America with innovative Interconnect, Electronic Interface, Terminal Block and Automation solutions. Headquartered in Germantown, WI, WAGO features state-of-the-art manufacturing and 35,000 sq. ft. of storage capacity for 17,000 product locations. The company is especially well known for its cage clamp and push-wire connector products.

Intergraph Corporation - Intergraph is an American software development and services company. It provides enterprise engineering and geospatially powered software to businesses, governments, and organizations around the world. The company's headquarters is in Huntsville, Alabama, USA.

Wisconsin Department of Tourism - The mission of the Wisconsin Department of Tourism is to market the state as the Midwest's premier travel destination by executing industry-leading marketing programs and establishing strategic partnerships.

Santa Fe International Folk Art Market - The Santa Fe International Folk Art Market is a results-oriented entrepreneurial 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that provides a venue for master traditional artists to display, demonstrate and sell their work. It is now the largest international folk art market in the world, and its success led to Santa Fe's designation as a UNESCO City of Folk Art.

JTI (Japan Tobacco International) - JTI is a member of the Japan Tobacco Group of Companies, a leading international tobacco product manufacturer. With its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, JTI has operations in more than 120 countries and about 25,000 employees.

Brown University - Brown University is an American private Ivy League research university located in Providence, Rhode Island. Founded in 1764, Brown is the third oldest institution of higher education in New England and seventh oldest in the United States.

Black Hills Corporation - A diversified energy company with a tradition of exemplary service and a vision to be the energy partner of choice, is based in Rapid City, S.D., and has corporate offices in Denver and Papillion, Neb. Black Hills' 2,000 employees partner to produce results that are improving life with energy. More information is available at www.blackhillscorp.com.

Red Gold - Red Gold has been producing premium quality tomato products since 1942. Red Gold produces premium quality canned tomatoes and tomato-based products for retail, foodservice, private brands, and club stores. The company's employee-created mission statement: "To produce the freshest, best tasting tomato products in the world."

Oceana - Oceana, founded in 2001, is the largest international organization focused solely on ocean conservation. Our offices in North America, South America and Europe work together on a limited number of strategic, directed campaigns to achieve measurable outcomes that will help return our oceans to former levels of abundance.

Matthews Brand Solutions - Matthews Brand Solutions is a worldwide group of passionate professionals executing a dynamic range of services that connect brands to consumers through packaging, marketing products, in-store communications, displays and total brand experiences.

Milwaukee School of Engineering - MSOE is an independent, non-profit university with about 2,500 students. MSOE offers 20 bachelor's degrees and nine master's degrees in engineering, business, nursing, health-related and math-related fields.

Other new customers include a maker of semiconductors in Silicon Valley, a medical center and teaching institution in New England, a manufacturer of beds and bedding accessories, a professional organization with hundreds of thousands of members in more than 100 countries, and a company whose offerings include personal computing, imaging and printing-related products.

"While there's no shortage of DAM solutions on the market, we were looking for a service that treats image and video assets with equal attention. We were pleased to come across Widen Media Collective, which offered a solution we believe our users will be happy to use, and overall seemed like the best fit for our needs," said Konstantin Konstantinov, web & database systems manager at Oceana.

Media Collective®, a Widen-hosted DAM system, is now in version 6.2 and supports creative and marketing workflows for about 200 diverse customers. The Media Collective's scalability allows organizations of all sizes to support their user groups with a centralized digital media library and marketing resources for improved performance. Version 6.3 is slated for release in February 2013 and will include asset comments & ratings, enhancements to asset Collections and more. Widen also recently announced a new integration with ConceptShare, a creative operations management solution.

We're gearing up for a webinar in which we'll go through all the new stuff that's coming in Media Collective version 6.3. Our digital asset management system is getting some refreshing enhancements, like the ability to comment on assets, a five-star rating feature, and more.

Register for the webinar here to learn more about what's new in our cloud-based digital asset management software.

The launch of version 6.3 of the Widen Media Collective adds a number of very exciting and highly visible new features that will help improve the creation, management and distribution of your digital assets.

Topics will include:

• New comments feature
• New ratings feature
• Expanded alerts & notifications functionality
• Expanded collection details & history
• New gallery view for public collections
• Improved search results and thumbnail view
• Updated batch editing functionality: append & clear
• New support and knowledge-base portal

Here's a little preview of some of the features we'll be covering.

Register for the Widen webinar on Wednesday, February 20 at 12:00 PM CST

WAGO Anticipates That Widen's Intuitive User Experience Design and Thorough Reporting Will Help Enhance the Manufacturer's Digital Asset Workflows and Strategic Decisions

MADISON, WI--(Marketwire - Feb 6, 2013) -   Widen Enterprises has announced that its cloud-based digital asset management solution, Media Collective, will be adopted by WAGO Corporation, a company that manufactures components for electrical connection technology and electronic components for decentralized automation technology.

With over 18,000 individual products and multiple images associated with each, WAGO's DAM software needs are big. Widen is perfectly positioned to take them on.

"A lot of other providers have similar kinds of things, but I think what really drew us to Widen more than anything else was how intuitive the system was for the user," said WAGO Marketing Communication Manager John Kenworthy. "For us, it's all about the experience for the customer."

That user experience is in for even more improvement with the upcoming release of Media Collective version 6.3, which will include features like commenting, a five-star asset rating system, and more.

"We know there are certain feature sets that just about everyone understands and is comfortable with. We've drawn from common, familiar technology experiences -- like social media, for example -- to virtually eliminate the learning curve on these new functionalities," said Widen Marketing Manager Jake Athey.

WAGO's team also recognized the broader strategic value of Widen's web-based digital asset management software. With Widen's analytics, WAGO will be able to make even smarter decisions, not only in marketing, but in other aspects of their business as well.

"Metrics are really important to us, and that was one of the features that we liked about Widen: all the reporting that you have available. We want to know how many people come in. We want to know how often. We want to know whether there are trends as far as what types of documents they're downloading or accessing. We want to know all those things on a monthly basis so we can better define what we put up there and remove things that are not pertinent, It'll also help shape our business for knowing where our distributors' interests lie," said Kenworthy.

About 400 users of WAGO's DAM system will benefit from the ability to access their assets through Widen Media Collective technology.

"WAGO is a fabulous addition to the Widen Collective community! We are honored to have them as a customer and we will work hard to build value in our relationship and in the digital assets we manage for them. We're sure their contributions will be electric < wink >. We are going to help the folks at WAGO meet their needs in streamlining media processes and their broader strategic goals," said Widen CEO Matthew Gonnering.

About WAGO

WAGO Corporation provides North America with innovative Interconnect, Electronic Interface, Terminal Block and Automation solutions. Headquartered in Germantown, WI, WAGO features state-of-the-art manufacturing and 35,000 sq. ft. of storage capacity for 17,000 product locations. Extensive engineering resources, a 25,000+ product portfolio, custom-manufacturing and 150 dedicated professionals ensure WAGO has the resources and expertise to help you get the job done.

We’ve been around for a while now. Since 1948, Widen has been providing customers with great service and cutting-edge products.

One thing we’ve learned, though, is that no one product is a fit for everyone. That’s why we’ve taken the step of creating Smartimage, a brand spanking new web-based image management service that enables design pros and brand owners from organizations of all sizes to make their most crucial brand assets available to those who need them — publicly.

• Responsive and touch-friendly— Smartimage is not only built simply, but also to work well on virtually any desktop or mobile device.
• Publicly searchable— Unlike your secure DAM library, the assets kept in Smartimage come up in search engine results, making this new tool an important part of making sure you’re represented well on the Web.
• Retina ready— Everybody’s living in HD these days, and so should your brand. Smartimage was built to keep your files and your “image” looking sharp on the latest displays.
• Auto-classification and smart tags— We automatically categorize your logos, images and PDF docs into the appropriate categories. Plus, you can use tags to help users find related assets, just like they do on so many of the social platforms they spend time on every day.
• Limited “geek knobs”— Clean, simple and refined. You’re not drowned in features, functions and visual clutter that detracts from a walk-up-and-use experience.